Confession docuses have become a genre in themselves on streaming platforms. We can no longer count the stars (Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, J-Lo, Mylène Farmer, the Beckham couple, etc.) who, in recent years, have agreed to let the cameras follow their daily lives to show, on Netflix, Prime Video or Apple TV , another side of themselves. In other words, their behind-the-scenes truth – that is, in any case, the promise of the press kits. In reality, the exercise is also about well-mastered communication.
“It’s consented authenticity. We’re also in this era where we say to ourselves that if we have to say something, ‘it’s better that it’s me who says it rather than someone else'”, explained to 20 Minutesduring an article on the subject, Fadhila Brahimi, specialist in communication and image for leaders. I am: Celine Dionwhich will be released online on June 25 on Prime Video, is no exception to the rule.
In a video message launched Tuesday just before the screening of the documentary event to the French press, Céline Dion praised Irene Taylor, the “incredibly talented” director whom she “trusted to tell [son] story with the greatest respect and care. »
“I don’t want to lie anymore”
We suspect that the artist had his say on the final editing but it turns out to be neither agreed nor sanitized. He is even brutal sometimes. First, because it hides nothing of what the artist endures with the stiff man syndrome from which she suffers. She felt the first effects of this neurological pathology, which affects one in two million people, a little over seventeen years ago. It started with vocal cord spasms. “One morning, after breakfast, my voice was higher,” she says on camera, specifying that the day after a concert is not normal.
Over the years, the symptoms intensified. “I had reached a point where I could no longer walk, I was losing my balance,” confides Céline Dion. She did everything to “not let anything show”. In concert, she finds subterfuges: she turns the microphone towards the audience so as not to have to sing, or she taps on it, feigning a technical problem. “I don’t want to lie anymore,” she says now.
“I’ve traveled all over the world, but I haven’t seen much”
SO I am: Celine Dion tells a truth by tearing up and recomposing the image that the artist has built since the start of his career. The archives are numerous, family videos or excerpts from concerts, they recall the transformation of the kid from a modest family to the fourteen children of Charlemagne who ended up conquering the world with a series of hits and vocal performances. And then, just after the title of the documentary is displayed, a video shot on a smartphone shows the artist in the present day, lying on the ground, in full crisis, until the firefighters intervene.
I am: Celine Dion is a succession of back and forths between the different image regimes. The triumphant and hectic stage passages collide with the intimate moments where she appears, literally without makeup, in her house in Las Vegas. When one of her sons asked her the country she would definitely like to return to, Céline Dion replied: “I have traveled all over the world, but I haven’t seen much. Strange, right? It’s the price to pay. »
Irene Taylor is careful not to follow the “grandeur and decadence” program generally engaged like an autopilot in biographical stories. Its angle consists of following an artist at a turning point in her life, personal and artistic, and in full questioning. The director points out, through a shot, the contrasts between the luxury in which the singer lives, her isolation and the way in which the illness hinders her daily life.
“It’s not hard to put on a show, what’s hard is to cancel it”
Contrast also when Céline Dion plays the guides in the immense warehouse where several parts of her life are stored – her stage and gala outfits, the drawings of her sons… She appears joking and does not fail to express her gratitude towards her collaborators. The space is ordered, everything is in its place, labeled. For a few minutes, she seems to have everything under control – we actually have the impression of seeing the Céline we have always known, with her vigor and her witty words. But as soon as she leaves this den of memories, she lets slip that her legs start to hurt. Back to reality and his chaotic everyday life.
We could take the title again, I am: Celine Dion, in an interrogative and almost philosophical formula: “What is Céline Dion the name of? » The film opens with an extract from an interview she gave when she was still a teenager: “My dream is to be an international star and to sing all my life”. About forty years later, she declared: “ [avant la maladie], my voice was the conductor of my life, I followed it. Without bothering with false modesty, she advances that she has “accomplished great things”, that she knew when she went to the recording studio “that they wanted Celine Dion”, that is to say “ the one that hits the highest notes there is, the best.” She also says: “It’s not hard to put on a show, what’s hard is to cancel it.”
This is why, in popular imagery, Céline Dion is the accessible diva with acrobatic tones. The axis of the documentary which, for example, does not dwell on her love story with René Angélil, shows that the artist is worth above all for herself, was built on her voice and dedicated herself to audience. So, inevitably, we grasp the dizziness that affects her, beyond the physical pain that assails her, when the singer understands that she will probably never regain her former abilities.
A raw and shocking reality
Celine Dion does not rule out a return to singing, in a register other than that which made her famous. She has this pictorial expression: “If I can’t run, I’ll walk. If I can’t walk, I’ll crawl. But I won’t stop. » Can we see this documentary as the first step in his transition to this future career?
We think we have confirmation of this in the face of a stunning sequence, showing the star in the middle of a crisis, which sounds like a way of putting an end to a certain image of Céline Dion. For several minutes, the masseur, used to providing her care, takes care of her, and we feel her anxiety rising. We then see the singer’s body crippled with spasms, stiffened, her facial features distorted and frozen. A raw and, dare we say, shocking reality, presented in a way that some would describe as immodest. Almost certainty: anyone who has seen the artist like this will never see her again as before. This is undoubtedly, consciously or not, what Céline Dion is looking for. Paradoxically, by assuming this extreme vulnerability, she shows all her strength and gives the best possible demonstration to her “I don’t want to lie anymore”.
In his introductory message, the star said that this documentary was “a way to talk to [ses] fans” and that she addresses it to them as “a love letter”. She actually tells them how much she misses them and that, even if she doesn’t really have good news to give them, she remains hopeful that her withdrawal from the stage is only temporary. Not a goodbye, just a goodbye.
